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DOE Approves Nuclear Loan Guarantee, But Program Is Off To A Slow Start

"Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz traveled to Waynesboro, Ga., Thursday to announce the finalization of a $6.5 billion loan guarantee for the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant -- the first nuclear loan guarantee that the Obama administration has completed."

"'The president,' said Moniz in a speech at the Press Club on Wednesday, 'sees nuclear energy as part of the portfolio of low-carbon energy.'

The agreement was reached with the plant's co-owners, Southern Company subsidiary Georgia Power and Oglethorpe Power Corporation. The Department of Energy is also working on a $1.8 billion loan guarantee with another partner in the project, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia. The loan will fund two additional reactors at the Vogtle site, the only reactors to win Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval in the United States since 1978. The first reactor at the site is expected to come online in 2017 and the second in 2018."